


Too much to do

by eldrazisuperstar



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Mentions of Starvation, Other, Reader-Insert, Some things are suggestive but no actual sex, paperwork evasion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 13:46:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17122505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldrazisuperstar/pseuds/eldrazisuperstar
Summary: You are working for the guildpact on Ravnica and this seems to be a very hectic week. These are various MTG characters x reader fics. You can get a different one depending on what you chose at the beginning. Use the chapter names and menu to pick an option.





	1. Chapter 1

You didn't know that working for the guildpact would be this much work. Apparently the important paperwork that wasn't getting done when he disappeared had piled up to the point where your boss could make an actual paper labyrinth out of it. While most of the paperwork had to be filled out by the guildpact himself, some of it and some of the errands around the place fell into the laps of the employees.

It still made up enough paperwork total to build one wall of the labyrinth when one put it all together.

Needless to say, this was more than a little bit intimidating for someone like you who had just started to work there.

You nervously approached your boss with an empty folder that would soon be filled, waiting for your next assignment. She walked into the room, her blue cape around her broad armored shoulders trailing lightly and almost touching the ground.

Lavinia's face was as stern as it usually was, but you could swear that you could make out slight dark circles under her eyes that must have been from staying up late working and dealing with the guildpact's mess.

"_," she said, setting a stack of papers down on the stone table in front of her "there are at least seven different jobs that are in desperate need of being completed today. Since you need all the experience you can acquire right now, you may take your pick." She let a heavy sigh out of her lungs as she pulled out a long list and set it down in front of you.

"Ma'm...are you ok?" You asked, slightly concerned for your boss's health. If she somehow got sick the entire place would fall into even more chaos than it usually did.

"I'm...fine. Anyway, you should get to work as quickly as possible. Look over this list and go to the location specified for the task you want to work on."

You looked over the list. Apparently the kitchen in this sanctum needed to be organized, there was paperwork that needed to be dropped off in the library along with the rest of the papers that made up the maze, a document needed to be delivered to someone in the district, the upstairs room needed to be cleaned up, the books in the library needed to be organized because someone had gone around putting each and every one out of order, the plants in the greenhouse needed to be watered, and Lavinia needed someone to help her with what she was already working on.

There were so any choices. You didn't know which one to pick.


	2. Stay and help

You decide to stay and help Lavinia with her work. It just seems like way too much for even her to do on her own and you're a little bit worried about her. Those dark circles under her eyes definitely don't look good.

She usually looked like she could handle anything that her job threw at her to the point where some people didn't even think she was a real human being. If the work was too much for her then it must have been too much for any single sane person to be ale to handle. She usually. Didn't even need to ask anyone for help with work at all.

You tell her that you want to help her with her work. You could have sworn that you saw the smallest smile of relief on her face for just one brief fraction of a second.

"I'll be glad to have the extra help."

You smile at her before picking some of the papers off of her stack, opening up your folder, pulling out your pen, and getting to work. It was mostly filling out names and places on blank lines. There were a few of the documents that needed the guildpact's signature. You put these into a pile next to the folder, one that would no doubt join the papers in the library after you were finished.

You didn't particularly enjoy this kind of paperwork, but it was worth doing just to make sure that Lavinia didn't work herself to death. You really did care about her and you had hit it off with her really well in the past few days that you had been working there. She was intelligent, knew how to get things done, and was beautiful.

But of course, you wouldn't say that last part out loud to anyone, especially to her.

Hours seemed to go by and you zoned out as you continued the work almost mechanically. You snuck glances at Lavinia every now and then, hoping to see her feeling a little bit better.

Her expression didn't change, but you could see her glancing at the pile of undone work less and less as you both worked on. This was a good sign.

As you kept going, you kept thinking about doing something that you had been working up the courage to do for a very long time. You wanted to ask her if she could hang out with you after work. And maybe...go on a date. A casual one of course.

Eventually, you were both finally done with your work. You grinned and put the last paper on the pile to go to the library. "Done!"

Lavinia gave you that slightly relieved smile again. It was rare but nice to see her smile.

"Take them into the library and put them on the unfinished wall. You've been a very big help and you can leave. You've been here hours over when you usually leave."

You grab your fingers, fidgeting nervously. "Hey Lavinia...? I was wondering if um...we could maybe go to a cafe or something on a day when were both off. We could hang out..."

You could feel your cheeks heat up and you really hoped that she didn't realize that you were blushing.

The smile didn't really leave her face, but you could see it shift into something you couldn't quite put your finger on.

"Im alright with going on one date _."

Your blush grew even darker. It looked like she was a little too good at reading people.

You put on the nicest set of clothes that you could find that weren't too formal. You didn't know how this would go, but you wanted it to go as well as it could.

You two had agreed to meet at a small cafe in the district where you both lived. It wouldn't be too loud and the two of you could sit down to some coffee that was much needed after your last week at work. The guildpact had run off again, but because of your extra help and at fact that you were putting in as much effort as you could to take the weight off of Lavinia's shoulders, the dark circles on here eyes were much less heavy.

She was there early of course, but that really didn't come as any surprise to you.

You sat down across from her after getting your coffee.

"So when do you think he'll be back?" You asked her.

"He could be gone for a while. He has a...predicament that forces him to travel at inconvenient times. Not that he couldn't have finished the paperwork before he left this time of course."

You had walked in when she had broken the illusion. One second you could have sworn you saw the guildpact working at his desk, but the next all you could see was an empty desk and a pile of work that had never gotten done. Lavinia had been furious and you had to try as hard as you could to clam her down.

You were getting good at calming her down though.

"How much work actually got done?"

She sighed and sipped her coffee. "Half a wall."

You gently put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll do it with you. We can make a paper fort next to the maze for when he gets back."

She smiled slightly again "We could build an entire house out of it."


	3. Books in the library

You decide to go organize the books in the library. It seemed like a simple enough job and you had roughly a good idea of where the books were supposed to be on the shelves. You had been into the library to find a reference book once or twice already.

You walk into the room littered with bookshelves and start to look around to see just how much damage had been done. It was much worse than you thought it would be. There were almost no books that were in order at all anymore. It seemed like all of the once carefully organized books no longer had any rhyme or reason to where they were.

You sigh and start trying to find a place where you can even try to start. You pluck one of the books that had been shoved onto the shelf in the wrong direction off of the shelf and look around for where you think it might belong. You could tell that it had originally been all the way on the other end of the room.

As you walked across the room, for a second you could have sworn that you saw someone or something dart behind a shelf. You raised an eyebrow and wandered over to where the thing was moving. There was nothing there. You shrugged and went back to walking across the room to put the book away.

After you had put it away, you turned around just in time to see something else dash out in front of you and vanish. It was something that had a sort of shadowy looking body. Was this library haunted?

You sighed again and went to go find more books to put away. If this place was haunted, you could only hope that the ghosts wouldn't want anything to do with someone who was just trying to put books back where they belonged.

You grabbed another book. It was one that was supposed to go right next to the book that you had just put away. You walked back over to the bookshelf you had put the other book away on, but to your surprise, the book you had out away before was suddenly gone.

You quickly turned again to see the same thing from before trying to dart away and hide again. You glared at the empty space where the thing had been. Now you knew why the books were so disorganized. That thing had been putting them out of order on purpose!

"I know what you're doing!" You called out to the thing. "Im not going to turn my back again, so you might as well show yourself!"

To your surprise, the thing that had been putting the books out of order slowly floated out from behind a book shelf, but another figure stepped out from the one opposite to it. You now recognized the shadowy creature you had seen darting around. It was a shade. You had heard of them before but this was the first time that you had actually seen one in person.

The other figure was a woman with black hair who was wearing a slightly revealing purple dress. Her figure was absolutely perfect and you found yourself staring at her for a bit longer than you probably should have been. You could feel your cheeks heating up a little bit from something other than anger.

She had a knowing smirk on her face as she stepped over to you slowly, shade floating behind her as she went.

"I thought it would take them longer to realize it. It's a shame they did." She shrugged a little bit.

You tried your best to glare at her and hide your surprise at even finding her there. "Well some people have organizing this place as a job and some people would like to keep said jobs. Why are you even doing this?"

Her smirk grew just a bit wider. "I have a very...special relationship with the guildpact. I honestly just wanted to see the look on his face. I've seen how he get's when even one of these books is out of place. If only he could worry that much about the rest of his house."

You tried to hold your angry expression, but you felt it fade very quickly. You could feel it melting off of you and being replaced with the urge not to laugh.

You actually HAD seen the way that the guildpact got when he couldn't find the book that he wanted. He would run up and down the whole library with a panicked look on his face, gulping down as much of his coffee as he could in some weird attempt to hide his distress. He would always do this when he couldn't find the exact book that he wanted even if another book with the same information was easy to find.

You had to admit, whoever this woman was, she had a good sense of humor.

You failed to fight back the urge to laugh and ended up snickering a little bit.

She seemed to take note of your snickering and she stepped closer.

"But you do have a point. I'll wait until tomorrow to do it again in exchange for a small favor."

You shrugged. "Whatever it is I'll be happy to do it if I can watch the chaos tomorrow and keep my job."

She put a hand on your upper back. Her hand was cold in a way that somehow didn't feel alive in any way. You jumped a little bit at her touch.

"Buy me dinner?"

You found yourself smiling at her. "Consider it done."


	4. Greenhouse

You decide to go into the greenhouse. You've always loved working with plants, so it seems like the best choice for you. There were a lot of plants to water and it was far from the easiest job on the list because of this, but you honestly didn't mind.

When you walk into the enormous room, the scent of damp soil and sweet smelling flowers hits you. The air was soft, humid, and pleasantly warm. It was a combination that was relaxing and focusing at the same time. While there were some plants that were in beds or on shelves, there also seemed to be a garden planted on the actual ground.

There were plants in all varieties of shapes, colors, and sizes. There were more than you could possibly name, but since you probably wouldn't be in too much of a hurry watering them, you figured you would get a chance to look at each one.

You grabbed a large watering can and started to fill it up, the water splashing into the can and making a pattering noise as you waited. You looked around the room again, staring out at everything you could take in. Eventually, the watering can was full and you started to get to work.

You went from plant to plant, making sure that every last one got the right amount of water. Luckily, there was a list on the side of the watering can that someone had put down that gave instructions for how much every plant needed. You could tell how much some of them would need before you even looked at the list, but it was good for filling in the blanks with plants you didn't know.

You smiled as you looked at each and every plant. There was one with small purple flowers, a tree that touched the ceiling of the room, a bristly bush with pale green nettles, and many many more.

As you went along, you started to get more and more relaxed, barely able to take your mind off of the greenery around you as you looked down. You were so lost in the wonder of it all that you didn't notice that you watered something on the ground that was not a plant until it flinched slightly.

You were kneeling down to water one of the plants on the ground when you did it, so you looked up and found yourself meeting the green endless eyes of an elf. You realized that what you watered was her boot and since she had been standing so still you had subconsciously dismissed it as a root.

You blush slightly at your mistake and instantly step back a little bit. You looked at her with slight embarrassment, but slight awe. She was wearing an outfit that was mostly browns and reminded you of the color of certain kinds of tree bark. Her outfit had a cape, a tunic, and gloves. Her face was framed in a way that fit her eyes and she had black stripes on the sides of it. She looked.....nice. You found yourself blushing just a little bit more.

"I-I'm sorry!" You stammered out "I didn't see you standing there!"

Her face which had been just the smallest bit startled before relaxed completely and went back to the state you had assumed it had been before you poured water on her foot.

"It's alright."

"Are you one of the guests I heard might be staying here?" You ask her. You had heard a few of of the other people that you work with mention a few strange people staying over. She seemed out of place among the usual people that you worked with, so you figured she must have been one of the people they meant.

No one seemed to have any interest in coming to the greenhouse, much less have the time to stay there to relax. The only reason why you suspected the place was there was because of the guildpact's tendency to show off when it came to luxuries and things he considered fancy.

She paused and then responded to you. "Yes. I did not expect anyone to come in here and take such time on every plant."

You realized that she had probably been watching you for at least a small amount of the time you had been there.

"Well....to tell the truth I like it here. I've only been working here for a few days but this is my favorite place to go. I've always really liked plants and this is the biggest greenhouse I've ever been in. There are just so many things to look at!"

You found yourself grinning excitedly as you went on. The elf you were talking to offered a pleased soft smile back.

"They seem happy that you are taking good care of them. They are all getting the right amount of water. They appreciate your love for them as well."

"I guess I haven't told you my name. I'm ____. It's nice to meet you."

"I am Nissa. It is a pleasure to meet you as well. Since you have an affection for the plants that live here, I can show you some of the ones that you may not know as well if you like."

You nod and smile at her, following her as she takes you around the place. She spoke briefly at each one, not rambling in her speech. You appreciated it as it gave you time to take in what you saw for yourself while you watered the plants that she showed you.

After a while, you had watered all of the plants you did not know. Nissa left you to water the rest in silence. Between plants however, you stole a few glances at the elf herself. She had sat down under the large tree that touched the ceiling and was staring ahead, seeming to be in a deep state of mind.

When you had finished watering the rest of the plants, you decided to sit down beside her. You were finished earlier than you had expected, so time wouldn't be an issue. you looked over at her. "How do you get to that state of mind?"

She broke her focus for a moment to regard you.

"Try to imagine your mind in a location that is soothing to you and that puts you in a meditative state. It is a good way to lead into focused meditation. Try to focus on that location in your mind and imagine yourself there. It can help to imagine yourself floating in a sea, drifting on the wind, and other such things depending on the location."

You nod and decide to try it. You stare out into space and try focusing.

You imagine yourself in the first garden that you had as a child. You picture every plant in it's place and the sunlight singing down on the rows. You imagine yourself in one of the sunbeams, radiating warmth and light to the patches of green.

Subconsciously, your body does relax. It relaxes when your mind does, you muscles loosening and your arms lightly falling to your sides with your hands resting on your lap as you sit there.

After what seems like forever, you finally hear a voice calling out to you.

"____?"

You open your eyes and find yourself coming slowly back to reality.

You look over at Nissa. She is staring right at you and you feel yourself blushing and smiling again. "Yes?"

"I think it is time for you to leave. I would not want you to lose your job."

You nod slightly and sigh. "Yeah, I guess not."

She hesitates before gently putting one of her hands on yours and holding it lightly. It is warm and soft in a way that reminds you of a flower petal.

"You are welcome to com back after you are done with work."

You nod and hold her hand gently. "I would love to."

She smiles at you and nods. "I will be here for the rest of the day and almost all of the week."

You get up and walk to the door, turning to look at her one last time before you go. You could have sworn you saw just the slightest blush on her face as you left the greenhouse, thinking about when you would return.


	5. Upstairs room

You decide to go to the room upstairs. You didn't know what shape it was in, but you would rather take that chance than try to deal with any of the other things that Lavinia mentioned. Almost all of them would be difficult tasks.

As you stepped into the room, you realized just how wrong you had been. This had to be the absolute worst room to clean in the history of the entire place and that was DEFIANTLY saying something considering how bad everything else tended to get around there.

Everything was tossed everywhere, there were the remains of various things that had once been food on the floor, and you could have sworn that you even saw a pile of ashes and some scorch marks on the ground in various places.

You stand there for a moment, trying figure where to even start. You didn't have any clue how half of the things on the floor even got into that room, so you decided to go and get a broom to start sweeping up the piles of ash.

When you got back into the room, you saw a woman with long red hair and goggles sitting on a wooden crate and eating a sandwich. She was eating slightly messily and crumbs were already starting to add to the litter on the floor. You cringed at the notion of having to do even more work than you were already going to have to attempt.

She suddenly noticed you and noticed the mortified look on your face, slowly and reluctantly lowering her sandwich away from her mouth.

The two of you just kind of stared at each other for a while in awkward silence before you finally spoke up. "Can you please not eat that in here? This place is already a mess and I have to clean it."

She nodded and stood up. "Right. Sorry about that. I was making a pretty big mess with is thing. Do you really have to clean this whole room? Just....wow."

You could tell that she felt a little bit guilty about eating the sandwich in there.

"Do you know how this room even got this bad?" You ask her, going over to one of the piles and starting to sweep it up.

"I've been uh, hanging out in here a lot." You could see her step back a little bit out of the corner of your eye. "So yeah, sorry again. I guess it got pretty bad pretty quickly."

"What did you do?! Set things on fire?!"

She gave you another guilty look. "Well....maybe. Ok yeah, I set a few things on fire. But I put them out pretty quickly so it could have been worse."

You sighed. "Well, the room was already as before you started setting things on fire. I just hope I can actually finish this by the end of the day. I don't want to have to stay here overnight."

She shrugged and then let out a sigh to follow yours. "Look....I can help you try to clean this mess up. I feel kind of bad for making it. If to need to stay overnight you can sleep in my room because I know people won't like it if you sleep on a bench in here somewhere,

You were a little bit relieved to have extra help and not have to worry about where to sleep if you couldn't actually finish it before it got late. "Thanks. I really appreciate it."

The two of you worked until it did get really late. You talked with her a little bit and found out that her name was Chandra. She had relaxed a little bit after telling you her name and having you say a few things to try to make conversation. She seemed to be a pretty cool person the more you talked to her.

When all of the work was finally done, you realized that it was well past midnight. You smiled a little bit as you put the last vase back on the shelf it had fallen off of. "Done!" You called out.

By then, you and Chandra were both exhausted, but god damn were you happy to finally be done. You looked over at your companion to see her slumping over and looking like she wanted to find a bed as soon as she possibly could,

"Great. We can finally sleep now."

She started to walk back to her room and you followed her. "Do you have an strait bd in your room?"

She shook her head. "No. But it's still better than sleeping on a bench."

You really couldn't argue with that. And besides, the idea of sharing a bed with her didn't seem too bad.

When she led you into her room, you were surprised to find that it was in even worse shape than the room you had just cleaned. The amount of things thrown everywhere, places were small fires had been lit, and even food debris were doubled if not tripled. You shuddered in advance at the thought of having to clean it when she left.

Chandra didn't seem to really notice this though. She just stepped over to the bed and proceeded to flop down on it.

You gently pulled the covers over her body and she made a small incomprehensible noise in response. You climbed into bed next to her and closed your eyes, trying to fall asleep.

You opened your eyes when you felt something warm and soft wrap around you. You looked over and blushed when you noticed that Chandra had her arms around you and seemed to be cuddling you in her sleep. She felt like a furnace, radiating heat against you.

You snuggled closer to her and closed your eyes again, smiling. At least the bed wasn't cold.


	6. Paperwork in the library

You decide to grab a piece of paperwork and take it to the growing maze in the library. You liked to idea of adding to that thing because it was a creative way to remind a certain someone that they had been away for too long.

You take one of the papers and you walk over to the Library. The maze in it was coming along nicely. There seemed to only be a few walls left to build before the thing looked complete. As Lavinia said, there was a half done wall that looked like where you needed to put what you had.

You started walking over to it, but you accidentally walked into a pillar that you swore was too soft to be a pillar on the way over to it and stumbled back a bit. To your surprise, the pillar made a small noise and stumbled back as well.

"I didn't expect someone to just...walk into me."

The pillar sighed and then shook off it's illusion. Where the pillar was, there was now a man standing there with brown hair and a blue cloak wrapped around himself. You couldn't help snickering a little at the fact that he was literally pretending to be a pillar.

"I didn't expect someone to be pretending to be a pillar. Why were you doing that anyway?"

"I was trying to avoid being seen by someone. Please, don't tell anyone you found me here."

You shrug a little bit "I won't, but who are you hiding from? Are you hiding from the guildpact? I heard he spends a lot of time in here when there isn't paperwork, but with all of this piled up you should be pretty safe."

The man gave you a confused and slightly surprised look.

"Are you new here?"

"Well yeah. I only started a few days ago. I don't know very many people here but I can listen to some of them talk."

"I'm Barrim. I work in the library. It's a pleasure to meet you."

You didn't think anyone worked in the library that wasn't just one of the general staff. Weird.

Almost as if he knew what you were going to say, he responded before you could ask a question.

"People don't usually talk about me. I guess I just don't stand out."

Don't stand out? He was wearing a blue cloak and had several belts wrapped around his body. That wasn't what you considered 'not standing out'. But you decided to let it go because you knew it was possible for people to forget others when you had so many co-workers.

"Are you going to tell me who you were hiding from now?"

"I was hiding from Lavinia. I...did something to get on her bad side."

"Well luckily for you she asked me to put more paperwork on the pile instead. She's tied up right now and I wouldn't be surprised if she's busy for the rest of the day. You're probably safe."

Berrim sighed in relief. "That's good. Now I just have to worry about leaving to get coffee without being noticed. I don't think I've had enough to hide here comfortably."

"If you need coffee," you offered "I could go get you some. I'm sure I'm going to be back with more paperwork soon anyway and the kitchen is on the way."

His blue eyes seemed to light up at your offer.

"Really? Thanks. Just make sure you get the sweet kind. I hate bitter coffee."

He reminded you a little bit of a puppy that knew it was going to be fed. It was cute in a strange way.

"It's no problem. If you like sweet things I can grab some cake for you while I'm at it too. I think there's some leftover."

He looked like he could almost hug you. "Please do. Cake is amazing."

You laughed and nodded. "Well, I'll be back in a bit then."

You walked out of the library, smiling a bit. It looked like you finally met someone at work that you might be able to get along with.

You grabbed some papers, a playe of cake, and some coffee and walked back to the library. You couldn't see Berrim, but you could see the extra pillar in the room again.

"I got the cake and the coffee." You called out to the pillar.

Berrim threw off his illusion again and ran over to you, obviously more than happy and what you brought him.

"Thanks. I thought I was going to fall over without the coffee."

He snatched the coffee and the cake out of your hands immediately and started chugging the coffee.

You smiled at how happy he was. "Cute." You muttered under your breath.

You didn't think he could hear anything you were saying, but you saw his cheeks turn a little bit red as he set the coffee down to breath.

"Cute...?" He sounded like he had never heard the word before of had at least never heard anyone use it on him,

You almost smacked yourself. Why did you say that put loud?! You probably just ruined any chance of being friends that you might have had.

"Yeah I just uh....pretend you didn't hear me say that ok?"

"I..." He looked like he was at a loss for words.

You didn't know how to respond to that, but you didn't have to. Luckily, the door slammed open and Lavinia stormed through it.

"Guildpact!"

You saw Berrim's face go from flustered to pale.

"I was just about to start on the paperwork!"

Lavinia walked over and picked him up by the scruff of his cloak, dragging him over to a desk and plopping him down on it.

"I'll believe it when I see you working."

You were very confused about the whole situation.

"Wait.....he's the guildpact?" You just realized that the guy you had just called cute was actually your boss.

"Yes. He's been hiding from me all day."

"Then he lied to me...?"

The guildpact looked over at you looking more than a little bit guilty.

"I did. I'm sorry about that but I really didn't want to have to start on this."

"Is Berrim even your real name...?"

"No, I thought you might recognize me if I told you my real name."

Lavinia rolled her eyes at the whole situation.

"His real name is Jace. And he should know better than to take advantage of new staff members. You can keep bringing in paperwork for him ___. There's plenty more."

You could see Jace gulp at the mention of more paperwork.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You came into work the next day. The rest of the previous day had been less eventful because Jace was too busy to talk to you. He looked over at you every now and then, but he didn't say anything.

You walked into the kitchen to see if there was any cake leftover. To you're surprise, you found a piece laying out already with a note attached to the plate.

The note read:

"Dear ____,

If you think I'm cute, we can go get coffee somewhere without paperwork. Don't worry about getting fired for leaving work, I'll make sure you won't.

-Jace"

You blushed a little bit. It looked like Jace thought someone else was cute too.


	7. Deliver things outside

You decide to go deliver the document. Being stuck inside that building all day was probably the worst part of your job and anything that you could use as an excuse to escape it and still keep your job was fine in your book.

You didn't need to be told twice. You grabbed the document and ran out the door.

The city streets were busy outside. It was a dull and rainy morning with dark yet soft storm clouds shifting in the grey sky.

There was the usual endless line of assorted persons waiting for their chance to deliver something, schedule a meeting, or be disappointed that they couldn't just randomly have a meeting on the spot without scheduling one first (you figured they had Lavinia to thank for that last bit).

You sighed. Walking around this line was going to be a pain in the neck. You knew that cutting through it was a bad idea since some of the people waiting in it were unmistakably from the less friendly guilds like the Gruul or Rakdos. You would have to find the back of it to walk around if you didn't want to get your arm broken or worse.

You kept walking for what seemed like an hour, circling around to find a way to get through. You eventually found what you had been looking for at long last: the end of the line to get into the building you had come out of. You ran for it, not waiting for the thing to get any further back than it already was.

Unfortunately, you were so focused on running quickly that you didn't notice a person walking your way and you crashed into them with a significant amount of impact. It was enough to knock not just the passerby, but you over as well.

You muttered a few vulgarities and slowly got back up to your feet. The stranger you knocked over proceeded to cuss loudly and almost endlessly.

You sighed and reached our a hand to help the unlucky guy up. He was a man with dark hair with one streak of white going through it and he was wearing the tell tale blue and red garb of the Izzet. The gauntlet he was wearing also added to the Izzet look. He had slight stubble on his face and you thought that his overall appearance was rugged and overworked, but definitely handsome.

"Shit, sorry about that. I was trying to get the hell away from this line before it got any longer."

The man seemed slightly annoyed.

"Some people would actually like to get INTO this line. I have very important business and I can't be held up by some stranger who can't see their own feet in front of them."

You gave him a look.

"You actually think you can get to the front of this thing in a day?"

"Of course I can. And I'll shorten it if I have to." You saw him put a hand to his gauntlet.

"So you made an appointment?"

You saw him quirk an eyebrow at you. "Appointment?"

A smile grew on your face slowly before you burst out laughing.

"Wow, you really didn't know did you? Even if you do somehow get to the front of this line they won't even let you in unless you make an appointment. You'll have to come back because they never schedule those things on the day you ask for them."

More cussing.

"And you just HAPPENED to know all of this when I wasn't told!"

You shook your head.

"Actually I know because I WORK there. I only left because they gave me an easy and boring errand to run, but I'm glad I actually get to go outside of the building at all. That place is like a maze."

"If I help you with this....errand will you let me in one of the back ways? I'm sure Beleren made a few."

You shrug. "Sure. Just don't try to blow up the building or anything because then I'll get fired."

He chuckled a bit but there was a slight dark tone to it. "If I did that we would both e out of a job even if it is tempting."

You walked with the man and talked with him as you went. His name was apparently Ral Zarek and as you had suspected, he was an Izzet guildmage. He seemed to know the guildpact on a name basis, but he also seemed bitter when he was brought up. His humor was snarky and he seemed to have a slight temper, but he seemed to at least think of you as acceptable company from what you could tell. He seemed to be looked at you and being engaged.

You told him where you were supposed to deliver the document and he seemed to luckily know where the place was, hitch was good because you might have gotten lost if he hadn't. You didn't exactly hang around the places where these documents were delivered very often.

Eventually, you got to the place where you were supposed to be. You started fumbling around the entrance, looking for a slot that was supposed to be there.

You heard Ral chuckle lightly as he came up behind you, snatched the document out of your hand, and slid it into a slot that was literally right next to you.

"You know, you really are cute when you're confused. Did you know that?"

You found yourself blushing at both his comment and the embarrassment from missing something that was right next to you.

"I could have found that on my own!"

"Of course you could have. It just happened to take five minutes to even get close to it."

You rolled your eyes. "Let's just get back so that you can actually get into the building."

"I really did mean that you know."

"Well you're.....not bad yourself! Now let's go!"

You could tell he was smirking as the two of you walked away without even having to look at his face. Damn it, why did you have to blurt that out?!

You both got back to your workplace and you led him in a back door that most of the staff knew about.

"Now you're absolutely SURE you won't blow things up or electrocute anyone with that gauntlet?"

"I give you my word."

"Fine. But I want you to come back here when I'm done to make sure you didn't."

He suddenly stepped forward and quickly gave you a small kiss on your lips. It only lasted for a few seconds, but you found yourself very flustered very quickly. He was telling the truth before and thinking you were cute.

"I was already planning on it."

Something told you you would be seeing a lot more of the Izzet guildmage. Outside of work.


	8. The kitchen

You decide to go to the kitchen. Maybe if you were lucky there would be some extra food laying out that no one wanted and you could help yourself to a little snack. Sometimes food really did end up getting left out because of how much of a recluse the guildpact was. He would often end up skipping meals by accident if there were no unhealthy foods (usually sweets) or coffee involved.

You slip in there and notice a plate of cookies and a plate of carrots cut into strips next to it. Obviously this was an attempt to get a certain someone to notice the carrots, but you had a feeling that Lavinia's latest ploy to get said person to eat healthy foods would just end in more disappointment.

Knowing that the plate of cookies was off limits and would probably be gone shortly after the next time you left the room, you decided to pick up one of the carrots and start munching on it. You were pretty sure that no one else would touch them anyway.

Suddenly, you heard footsteps coming from down the hallway. You quickly tried to stuff as many carrots into your mouth and finish eating them before whoever it was came into the room.

You failed and when you turned around, you were facing a burly man in armor with half a carrot strip hanging out of your mouth.

You blushed a bit, half from embarrassment and half from the fact that the man was very attractive. His body was well built, and his face was handsome in a way that reminded you of a stereotypical warrior. He had long brown hair and brown eyes that matched the rest of his appearance very well.

And you had just been cramming carrots into your mouth in front of him.

You slowly take the last carrot out of your mouth before trying to come up with some kind of desperate last minute explanation.

"I'm....I'm so sorry sir! It was just that....no one ever eats these things and I was really hungry and I...."

The man have you a look.

"You....shouldn't be cramming that many into your mouth at once. You could choke."

You nod at him slowly and put the carrot down on the table behind you.

"So you're not....mad at me for eating them?"

He pats your shoulder gently.

"As long as you don't eat this many again it should be fine. But you should bring a lunch from home next time."

You sigh in relief. The pat on the shoulder was reassuring and it calmed you down a little bit. At least he wasn't very angry at you for the carrots. If Lavinia had caught you...well, you didn't even want to think about that.

"Do you work here?" He asked.

You nodded.

"What's your name?"

"I'm ____." You told him. "I've never seen armor like your's before. Where did you get it?"

"Somewhere um, very far from here." He said, his face taking on a look of contemplation. "My name is Gideon and I'll be staying here for a few days."

You smiled a little bit. "So is it official business? This is the first time I've seen anyone stay here as a guest."

"It is in a way. I'm glad to be staying here, but this is a large building and I have to wait until the others are ready for the meeting."

"So you came down here early?"

"Yes. I prefer to start out my day as early as I can so that I can get the most put pf it."

"But.....there's barely anyone awake yet."

You kept talking with Gideon for a while. He was apparently someone from outside of the city and it was interesting to talk to him since you had never left the city yourself. He seemed to be a very kind and caring person, asking you how your morning was going and reminding you to not choke on carrots again before running off this his meeting.

You saw Gideon a few more times that week. He would always come into the kitchen very early and since you had apparently been put on kitchen duty all week since you had done such a good job on the first day, you kept running into him.

He would always ask you why you didn't pack a lunch, but you were too ashamed to tell him that you couldn't afford it. The money that you got from a job like this wasn't an incredibly large amount and you had to chose between eating and keeping your house quite often.

He would always give you a concerned look, but he never pushed the question too hard on you.

One day however, you were at the end of your rope. Your body felt like it was completely drained, but you had still come to work anyway. You felt like you were going to fall over and you felt dizzy just from standing still. Your stomach was past the point of simple hunger and past the point where the pain was even numb.

You could see a plate of vegetables in front of you, but you knew that you shouldn't touch it. Even if you knew better, the very sight of the food made you want to scream and tear your hair out. You knew you couldn't take it but it was something, anything. You needed it.

You heard footsteps coming from down the hall again. You had to look normal. You had to look presentable so that no one would suspect what was wrong. You tried to hobble over to the door, but you suddenly found yourself tilting over and falling after losing what little balance you had left. You could hear someone yelling your name before you blacked out, knowing that whoever it was would probably tell everyone and you would probably lose your job or have to deal with incredible amounts of shame for as long as you worked there.

You woke up with something warm holding you up, you opened your eyes and saw Gideon staring down at you. You tried to force yourself to smile and pretend like nothing had happened, but you could already see him shaking his head with an upset look on his face. He was holding you gently in his arms. Keeping you off the ground seemed easy for him.

"Why didn't you tell me...?"

You found yourself frowning. "I....didn't want to upset anyone....I was embarrassed...."

He reached for a bag that was next to him and opened it, looking for something.

"____, that isn't something that you should hide from someone who's trying to help you. You should have told me right away."

"What...?" You gave him a bewildered look "You want to...help me? You don't...think I'm bad...?

He pulled some kind of cooked meat out of the bag, gently slipping it into your mouth. You started chewing it almost immediately.

"I would never think that. You're a kind and a good person. No one should ever hate you for not being able to afford something."

You swallowed the bites of meat in you mouth and then suddenly found him pulling you close to his chest and hugging you. You felt warm. You felt safe. This was someone who cared about you. This was someone who wanted to make sure you were ok.

You found yourself hugging him back and burying your face into his chest. He put a hand on your shoulder again. "I can share my lunch."


End file.
